There's a large part of him that wants to scream no and have Lan Xichen stay right here and help him but his pride stops him from doing so. Jiang Cheng grits his teeth, dangerously close to breaking them. The statue? Through the red haze that settles over his mind, there's something to Lan Xichen's words. The trinket that day that he had been hit with before they escaped the temple.

"No, not the temple earlier today," he gasps out.

Somehow it sounds far more shameless than he had intended. He swallows another moan.